Mexican-U.S. relations need not be tense despite complex border problems and "a history burdened by acts of extreme aggression," President Carlos Salinas de Gortari said in his first state-of-the-nation address.
"Relations with the United States of America are of special significance to Mexico," Salinas said. "We reject confrontation as being senseless. We view the future with assurance, without ignoring a difficult past."The Harvard-educated president, who has earned a "Mr. Clean" image since assuming office last December, said the two countries are working together to combat drug trafficking and to promote the status of Mexican migrant laborers.
The checkered history along the 1,933-mile U.S.-Mexican border should not be an obstacle to friendly relations, Salinas said.
"Relations with such a powerful neighbor, with the most complex common border in the world and a history burdened by acts of extreme aggression, will never be easy," Salinas said. "Nevertheless, there is no reason for our relations to be always bad or tense."
The president later traveled to Mexicali, just across the border from Calexico, Calif., to witness the inauguration of Baja California Norte's new governor, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, the first opposition state leader elected in 60 years.
Salinas, whose unprecedented narrow victory last year was marred by allegations of fraud, has promised to bring true pluralism to Mexico's political system, which has been dominated by his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, since the party's founding in 1929.
The PRI has never lost a presidential election, and until Wednesday the party had run all of Mexico's 31 states.
Salinas' address was broadcast nationally over radio and television from the Palace of Fine Arts, the country's concert hall that has been used for congressional functions since the Legislative Palace was damaged by fire in May.
The state-of-the-nation speech is a national holiday in Mexico, with all government offices, banks, schools and most businesses closing for the day.